Both games are centered on exploration more than the main quest. You're thrown into a world without instructions, you don't know who you are or what you're doing here. There is just a world to explore and have a fun adventure in.

While quite different of course, they have basically the same goal: you first have to get lost in order to find your way.

The fun begins when you explore and stumble across things by mistake.

Also many landmarks in BOTW are straight up taken from the NES game, like the twin mountains in the gerudo desert.

After Ocarina of Time, the Zelda games went to a linear story with a dungeon formula almost copy pasted for 20 years. BOTW breaks this pattern to get back to its roots: exploration.

Just watch the interviews of Aonuma explaining this.